Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Disney and Lucasfilm seem to be applying the method of filmmaking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe very well to the Star Wars franchise. Back in 1977, the opening title crawl for "Episode IV - A New Hope" established that "rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base...won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon: the Death Star". Thanks to "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", the first film in the Star Wars Anthology film series (SWA), we get to see how all this happened. George Lucas wanted these stand-alone films to do just that: stand apart from the traditional saga. They occur in the same universe and affect the traditional films but the characters introduced in the SWA will not appear in the main story, which is the story of the Skywalker family. I enjoyed this movie and was quite impressed with the look of the film. I felt like I was a genuine precursor to the original trilogy. The prequels were good forerunners in my opinion but they took place two decades at least before the events of "Rogue One" and "A New Hope". Because of the high level of nostalgia, a lot of fans should be satisfied. The amazing balance between originality and references to the classic movies impressed me. You must treat this film as a spin-off in order to fully enjoy it.

Because this story takes place directly before "A New Hope", the film had to feel like it was made back in the 70's. However, moviegoers today still crave special effects that were not possible back then. In addition, this movie is designed to be separate from the other Star Wars films. This is all achieved through a variety of cinematic aspects. The story of the movie is well crafted and that tends to be the most important aspect of most movies. "Rogue One" has drama but without Jedi and Sith, the good side of the Force pitted against the dark side, the film is good but not great. Jyn's tale is entertaining thankfully and we are treated to an adventure that was far more perilous than we could have envisioned from the opening crawl of the first ever Star Wars film. While "Episode III" was a nice connection with the original trilogy, the filmmakers still had a nineteen-year gap between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" with which to justify the differences between the two trilogies. "Rogue One" does not have that luxury but met that challenge. With this spin-off, we get yet another bridge between both trilogies but this time favoring the original trilogy. Just as "Episode III" had a few hints referencing original trilogy, "Rogue One" has a few references of the prequels (mostly by way of the casting). Another part of the story of "Rogue One" that intrigued me was seeing a variety of rebellious factions come together for the first time against the Empire and become a true alliance. As with the prequel trilogy, we already know the outcome of "Rogue One" but the climax was such that we were kept guessing. Who would have imagined those plans almost didn't make it out of the battle? Concerning all the new characters introduced in this film, their fate did surprise me. You usually don't see this kind of ending in a Star Wars movie but as mentioned, it is a stand-alone film. The final scenes were exactly what I was hoping for though.

Setting the story aside, I was more impressed with other aspects of this film such as cinematography, design and lighting. While the latter two aspects provided the needed retro feeling, the camerawork created originality. The handheld shots in particular made this film feel like the spin-off that it is. The design of the film is very referential of "Episode IV" from the sets to the props. Not all the costumes in "Rogue One" were made specifically for this film because some of them are actual costumes from the original trilogy. I love that. If I was to pick one element of the design that felt out of place, it was the stormtroopers. I know that doesn't make sense because that's far from an original aspect but anytime I saw a stormtrooper, the cleanliness of their white uniforms (or something else I just can't put my finger on) just seemed to distract me from what was happening. This is just a very minor flaw though and it appears to be more minuscule with each passing viewing. I guess I have always viewed stormtroopers as not much of a threat. Pop culture seems to label them as such. One stormtrooper bangs his head and the rest are paying for it. The good news is that they are less like the clonetroopers from the prequels and more like the stormtroopers from the original films. The special effects were awesome and because the filmmakers knew that this film would be compared with "Episode IV", they aimed for realism as opposed to complexity. By realism though, I mean that the Star Destroyers for example look very much like the miniature effects of the original trilogy. The graphics on various computer screens match what we saw in 1977, such as the Death Star plans. The eye candy though did not completely overshadow the story so I was grateful for that. I also liked the use of lighting, especially with the shots on Imperial ships. The sets as a result not only look retro but also feel retro. The sound effects were likewise very referential to the source material.

The casting and the inclusion of certain classic characters by way of CGI also did wonders for setting us back in that familiar "galaxy far, far away". Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Jones was a lot better in this film than she was in "Inferno" earlier in 2016. I knew I had seen Diego Luna before and he was in Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal". My favorite character in Rogue One is K-2SO. Alan Tudyk has been in every Walt Disney Studios Animation film since 2012 and it appears his talent is being utilized for Lucasfilm as well. Tudyk apparently brought the droid to life through motion capture and this is not the first time he played a robot by means of this technology. Forest Whitaker's character apparently has appeared on or been mentioned in Star Wars TV shows a few times. The only other film I have seen Mads Mikkelsen in prior to "Rogue One" was "Doctor Strange", which was released only a month prior. I liked Mikkelsen's character in the MCU and his work in this SWA film is likewise noteworthy. The aforementioned connections with "Revenge of the Sith" come by way of the casting of Jimmy Smits and Genevieve O'Reilly. The decade since the production of "Episode III" helps with naturally aging these actors in their roles as senators Bail Organa and Mon Mothma respectively. O'Reilly's look in this film makes her look so much like Caroline Blakiston from "Return of the Jedi" that it is scary. The makeup used for General Dodonna was very poor though. I don't think Star Wars fans were expecting a lot of Darth Vader in this film but the scenes we got were quite satisfying in my opinion. His suit is not as pristine as in other films but that is again an attempt to tie in this spin-off with the original Star Wars movie. I also like the brief glimpse we get of Anakin. Some beloved characters that appeared in this film were accomplished through computer rendering and the majority of those shots look very impressive. Die-hard fans will obviously know that these shots aren't real but who cares? I am confident that brand-new moviegoers to this franchise, rare as they are, can be fooled. However, on opening day, I found one person on social media who hated these CGI facial replacements. I have already mentioned this in my discussion for "Revenge of the Sith" but the desire for perfection from die-hard Star Wars fans is ruining their ability to enjoy new movies. Another great use of technology utilized to resurrect classic characters is the use of unseen archival footage from "Episode IV" of the X-wing fighter pilots.

Just like J.J. Abrams, director Gareth Edwards has been a long-time fan of the franchise. "Rogue One" was actually first pitched by John Knoll, the special effects supervisor of the prequel trilogy. He receives story credit on this spin-off and was nominated for an Oscar for the sixth time as part of the visual effects team. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tony Gilroy (who wrote most of the "Bourne" movies) helped to write the screenplay. As with Edwards' previous movie, "Godzilla", Gilroy had to step in during production to help finish the movie. In the case of "Rogue One", Gilroy handled the expensive reshoots that took place months before release and recrafted the ending of the movie. Those reshoots got many fans worried because historically, reshoots for a highly anticipated film is a bad sign. It wasn't the case with "Rogue One" thankfully. Speaking of filming, this spin-off was made at Elstree Studios in England. That is where many other films in the franchise were made, particularly "A New Hope". Another change during production that caused worry was the change in musical composers. First of all, "Rogue One" is the first live action Star Wars movie not to be scored by John Williams. I think the film would have been a bit better if he had wrote the music but this is another aspect of the film where originality could play a part. Besides, it's not like the new composer was going to completely abandon the beloved musical themes. Alexandre Desplat was originally scheduled to compose the musical score and he has stood in for Williams before in a way when he composed for both parts of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". When the reshoots happened, the production schedule changed and Desplat was unavailable. Composer Michael Giacchino (who was inspired by Williams' work to become a composer) came in right after finishing the score for "Doctor Strange" and had a little over a month to complete the music for "Rogue One". Considering the final product, that is impressive. The music was very reminiscent of the type of score we are used to for this franchise. Giacchino has likewise filled in for Williams sort of speak by working on "Jurassic World". Both Desplat and Giacchino are Oscar winners so either composer I feel was worthy of composing in this franchise. Speaking of the Oscars, besides the nomination for visual effects, "Rogue One" was also nominated for its Sound Mixing. I was kind of hoping it would win but it sadly did not.

Unlike some trailers for other films, the marketing for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" did not spoil everything that made this movie fun to watch. We were given glimpses of Darth Vader for example but were not shown other returning characters. A lot of cinematic aspects were effectively employed to hearken back to the original trilogy but "Rogue One" also made efforts to be original and stand apart from the Episodes of the franchise. We were treated to an adventure that we have heard about since 1977 but never witnessed before. The movie looks amazing and that is what I noticed from the first trailer. Thus begins the SWA.

4 Stars out of 5